Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Make that 75 miles...

Pandastiques

If you told me last year that I'd be finishing this year a 75 mile ride, I would think you were talking about a bus trip to Santa Cruz to camp out with my trippy hippy brother. I could ride 75 minutes, sure. As long as we stop about 5 times for coffee.

Okay, so to be honest we had plan "A", not even "B" because we had painted a pretty easy-breeze image, that after stopping in that diner (both Adrienne & I are familiar with, across the street from Cowgirl Creamery) we would 'drop out' and go home. Well that didn't happened.

Honestly, when I looked at the map, you know I was mapping my coffee spots.
Good coffee in Marin is not a problem, the issue was not wanting to go to every single one of them...
Anyhow, the morning started slow. Very slow for me. Perhaps it was because, I admit it, it was the first time I ever felt like not-riding the Frenchie...
The Wednesday before the Randonneur ride, my smurfette, Torpado road bike, encountered a somewhat unexpected accident :(

one torpado down

Anyhow, when I came to realize that I was to ride my beloved mixte that has survived the Marin headlands, and the San Francisco 7hills, I said - what the hell. Let's do this.
And Somehow we were on the other side of the bridge. I was still trying to get my caffeinated blood going. Seriously.

Good morning sunshines."meli you sure you had enough coffee?" James is always on top of things.

I was very impressed our first major break stop was in Point Reyes, not counting the multiple quick ones along the road. Adrienne with her crazy multiple former injuries seriously rocked the hills, she walked some of them and that is cool. We were not in a race. We rode to have fun and we sure did. I am all for walking them up, but really I probably am more efficient going turtle speed on the bicycle, than walking up a hill.

Okay, this is the Pt.Reyes rest stop. I was happy to get my coffee at Bovine Bakery. I love that place.

My language is spoken here.moooooo.

I HAD to get coffee. Stretching that ex-jock knee of mine felt good.

Midway Coffee.

And as you can see, we ride hard, we chill out hard.

The tree is not only for yoga poses.

After having some naked juice, pizza, caprese salad and coffee, we stopped at Cowgirl Creamery. They have Mr. espresso beans, so I got an Americano for the road ;)

Preparing espresso for me.

I am not your stereotypical caffeinated hyper friend. I guess you would have to be around me to believe I do drink that much coffee. I don't realize, as it really is second nature to me. I am a rather mellow person that is not 'jittery' or talks a gazillion words per minute, like some might think I do. I am a complete monster if I don't have my coffee by 7am. Luckily very, very few have experimented that. At any rate.

Here we are approaching the Nicasio Reservoir. Beautiful. And intense. Wind was starting to kick in.

behind me.

Ade kicking butt.Reservoir. Just beautiful.

Somehow I felt my ankle had been hit by a nail. It was a bee doing pirouettes spot on my ankle. Had I been on my road bike, I would have probably gone down. However, the frenchie and I, have this bond. Something about old bikes, I could do some crazy maneuvers, juggle, and still ride, that is how comfortable I feel on it. So goes my right hand down and SWAT - the bee went.
I hadn't been stung since pre-school which I don't recall. I am pretty sure the bee experienced an overdose of caffeinated blood exposure.

Today is Tuesday and the bee sting only hurt on Sunday for a little bit. So not bad at all.

Over the bridge.Adrienne takin pictures and the guys. That seem to be a popular stop ;)A few minutes before this, there was this beautiful downhill. A visual milestone.James and Sean made it look so painless and easy!Happy trees.

I think we (Ade and I) were pretty swept by one of the hills we encountered before dropping back down to Forest Knolls. Good thing that road was pretty shady and there was no sign of gutsy winds, just yet.

By the time we got back to Fairfax we were pretty tired, in a good way. My butt was not hurting and I had already surpassed the amount of miles I had ever ridden in one day on the frenchie. I tend to say that saddle has had it, but it does a great job of proving me wrong.
And yes, I did get one last (single) shot Americano for the road. Sharing is caring, you never know if your friends will need some coffee too later down the road!!! :D

Fairfax love machine.

These below, are images of the home stretch. The group we were with was great, and this will be an experience that will linger in my memories as a first. I will never look at those roads the same way, even if later in life they become easier to ride. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I am fortunate to have hooked up with my peeps. I have also gone riding with the woolly cool guys (retro ride) and Eric, who started as our flickr friend, and has become one of our favorite ragazzi.
Good humor, good energy and even a new riding buddy (Sean!) thanks guys for sticking around with us the photohog, coffee lovers, first timers, Adrienne and I.
And to the Randonneur guys, thanks for emailing us for a follow up, we heard from phone calls you were checking on our group and glad you heard we made it!!!!!

Don't ask me why or how I found some energies out of me to go out on a city ride on Sunday. Surprisingly I wasn't sored, my arms didnt hurt and my legs didn't feel like spaghetti. The frenchie rocks and my peeps kept me going - love you all ♥!!!

14 comments:

"Had I been on my road bike, I would have probably gone down. . . Something about old bikes, I could do some crazy maneuvers, juggle, and still ride"

That's French townie geometry. The road bike is a weight shift steerer. Shift your weight suddenly, over you go. The French townie is a handlebar steerer. Don't bump the bars suddenly, or over you go, but you can dance the fandango on the thing and it just keeps its line.

Meligrosa, What a fun blog. I love how you just kind of went for it. I have the same deal with my haul ass roadbike. Easy to get out of control . Where as my 20yr oldcity bike is rock steady. I think it has to do with thewheel base, which is longer on older bikes. Rule of thumb for myself, don't go out for drinks on the road bike.Jon C

great ride report! you guys seemed to have such great spirit on your ride. the rando folks said about 75% of the people who rode were new, and that for many of us (me included) it was the longest they had ever ridden at one time. i was on my 8-speed utility bike and it treated me very well, too. the frenchie's gonna go down in local lore fo sho...

some pic links!:http://tinyurl.com/yez93aphttp://tinyurl.com/yb2ltyfhttp://tinyurl.com/y9frfwd

Based on the curve of the Frenchie's fork, it looks like a classic low-trail design, meaning it's a very stable ride, especially with a front rack/basket with a little bit of weight in it. Bikes like this tend to want to go straight, and are less sensitive to rough pavement, body-weight shifting, and cross winds. This is a VERY good characteristic to have on a randonneuring bike you'll be riding for many hours, when you're so tired you can't see/steer straight!

Now don't annoy a lovely lady. Everyone knows what Filigree wants. Details details! I was more interested in the orange and black white combination personally. The 'shoes' are nice too :) Don't you guys have cars in the states. Come to Seoul and I'll show you cars